


Three Little Redheads

by Crosshairs



Series: Starks and Irons [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Delusions, F/M, Friday is Tony's daughter, Human!Friday, Introspection, Not Steve Friendly, Realizations, Wake Up Calls, actions have consequences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-08 00:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14093028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crosshairs/pseuds/Crosshairs
Summary: Red headed people are said to be more emotional than others. After being defeated by the New Avengers, Steve finds out just how true that statement is, and in the process he comes to a few realizations about himself as well.





	Three Little Redheads

**Author's Note:**

> The first connected one-shot of the 'Starks and Irons' series that I keep promising since last year! This one is sort of a missing moment from my main story, 'Tony's Girl'. You need to read that if you want to understand what's going on here.
> 
> Happens between chapters 30 and 31 of 'Tony's Girl'.

**Friday Ana Stark**

Steve was still reeling fifteen minutes after Tony and Sharon had walked out of the detention block, still staring at Bucky's unconscious figure on the floor. His head was spinning, and not just because of Tony's parting words.

Bucky had gone ballistic. He had looked every bit like the Winter Soldier as he had tried futilely to break the divider glass between his cell and Steve's. And all it had taken to make him react like that was Tony telling him about Wanda's past. It had to have been one of his tricks, just like when he told Steve that he had actually made things worse for Bucky.

Yes, that's what it was. It had to be like that.

All Steve had done had been to protect Bucky. He couldn't have done everything he'd done only to obtain the exact opposite result! Tony must have been playing him.

After all, wasn't that precisely how Tony had defeated them? He had played on their issues, their traumas. He had used those to pit them against each other, not just him and Bucky, but his entire team. And he had succeeded, because during all his years playing the media, he had also become a master in psychological warfare: in the end, he had literally destroyed them one by one. All that had been left to do was for Tony and his team to subdue them and sweep them up.

Tony's team.

It still baffled Steve how so many people could actually agree with Tony on the Accords. Yes, Tony had always been good at swaying the room, another byproduct of dealing with the media since the day he was born, but surely these people must have some reservations on the Accords.

Right?

As he was thinking that, the girl who had replaced War Machine came into the corridor, clad in full armor.

Steve was simply appalled at how quick Tony had been to replace Rhodes.

War Machine had been the very first to agree with Tony when the Accords had been put on the table. He had backed him up in Leipzig and got hurt because of it. And Tony repayed him by having this girl take his place.

She reached the cells and opened Bucky's. Stepping inside, she unceremoniously grabbed him by the back of his tactical vest and dragged him towards the exit.

Steve could not stay quiet any longer: "Where are you taking him?" he demanded to know.

The dame didn't even turn to look at him. She just dragged Bucky out of the cell.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" Steve insisted, banging his hand on the glass.

Nothing. She didn't acknowledge him in the slightest as she dragged Bucky away.

She came back about two minutes later, alone. Now her helmet was off, and Steve was momentarily thrown aback at how young she looked. She couldn't be any older than twenty or twenty-five. How could Tony bring such a young and inexperienced girl on the field?

"Where the heck have you taken him!? Answer me!" he asked when he finally managed to overcome his surprise.

She finally turned to him, and for a moment she looked like she was debating with herself whether to answer him or not: "To another cell, at the other end of the detention block," she answered casually after a beat, in full Tony fashion, "it's best if he doesn't see your ugly face when he wakes up, given how crossed he seems to be with you. We don't want him to make another scene."

Steve bristled with righteous anger: "Tony is the one who made him cause a scene! This is mistreatment, and it's totally uncalled for!" he stated with disapproval. He tried to look imposing, to take full advantage of his height and bulk compared to her short, petite figure. But the girl wasn't cowed in the slightest. She probably knew her armor made her stronger and more resilient than Steve. And that got to Steve's nerves a lot more than he cared to admit.

She walked up to him, looking him dead in the eye through the reinforced glass: "I thought you had an eidetic memory, Rogers. But maybe your actual age is finally getting to you, so I'm going to remind you: that guy-" she pointed in the direction she had taken Bucky "-took eight hostages this morning, and he actively resisted arrest. As for you, not four hours ago you tried to kill Tony Stark again."

Steve was ready to retort, to say that he was only trying to protect Bucky, but the final word stopped him.

_Again._

Yes, maybe it was partly true that he wasn't completely controlling himself earlier that morning, but... Again? What was that about?

"What do you mean, again? I've never-"

"Siberia," she interrupted him.

Steve flinched visibly. Had Tony really told her about what had happened in Siberia? Steve himself hadn't mustered up the courage to tell his own team about it until he was forced to!

Who was this girl? Why had Tony never been open and truthful with his old teammates, but to this girl he told everything, even when some things should remain personal?

"Siberia?" he repeated dumbly, "You really think I was trying to kill Tony in Siberia?" he said, horrified by the mere thought.

"I don't _think_ that, Rogers. I _know_ that. I know that you hit him with a vibranium shield, first across the head and then on his chest, with enough force that both the helmet and the chest plate of his suit were destroyed. The Iron Man suits are all armoured heavily enough that they could withstand a direct hit from an anti-tank cannon without even a chip in the paint. Yet you used enough force to actually cut through the armour plating."

Steve wanted to argue, but his tongue felt like a useless lump in his throat.

The girl's face was starting to contort in rage as she continued: "When we found Boss, he had a cerebral edema, five broken ribs and a collapsed lung. And we only managed to get to him nearly an entire day hours after the fight. After you left him to die."

Steve dropped his gaze. He saw that she was clenching her fists.

And she still had her armor on.

So far, Steve had been worried for Bucky. Worried of what Tony could do to him now that he had him. But now, in his cell with this mysterious girl confronting him, Steve was worried for his own safety.

Tony didn't mess about when he built one of his armors. Even when that armor was not for himself. Iron Girl here was both angry _and_ armed to the teeth. She could obliterate him.

"You don't know everything," he tried to defend himself, "You don't know-"

Before he could say anything more, the door of his cell suddenly slid open, and the red headed girl stepped inside, grabbing him by the front of his tattered uniform and effortlessly shoving him back until Steve's body slammed against the far wall.

Steve stared incredulously. She was formidably strong, and he had the sinking suspicion that it wasn't just thanks to her suit.

He immediately saw why: her eyes were glowing the color of fire, as if actual live flames were burning right behind her pupils. Steve remembered that Tony's eyes had lit up in exactly the same way when he had beaten him, a few hours earlier.

The girl was enhanced too.

And she was _furious._

"Only four people know exactly what happened in Siberia: Tony Stark, James Barnes, you... and me. I _do_ know everything, Rogers. _Everything."_

Steve reeled: "What did Tony tell you? Huh? Did he tell you that- that I went insane and attacked him? Did he tell you that Bucky attacked him? What did he tell you?" he asked frantically.

Her fist closed tighter around the fabric of his uniform, around the iconic silver star that represented Captain America, and pressed him even more against the wall. He could hear the cloth ripping and the kevlar armor plate cracking under the grip of her fingers.

Her expression, if possible, had become even more enraged: "He didn't need to tell me anything. _I was there."_

Steve's eyes bulged. _What?_

"I'm not a baseline human, as you can tell. I am not even _just_ an enhanced human; I am more than that. In Siberia, I was linked to Boss' armour. I saw everything he saw, heard everything he heard. _Every. Single. Thing._ I saw you lie to him, fight him, nearly kill him. When you finally crashed the helmet, I still heard the crunching noise of that shield ramming into the Arc Reactor. Into the device that had kept Boss alive for years. You destroyed it like it was nothing. Like it _meant_ nothing."

Steve gulped, unable to even think of anything to say.

"And even after that, the auxiliary reactors kept the suit running for a few more minutes. I heard Boss tell you that you didn't deserve that shield. You dropped it, and walked away. You had just beaten him to near death, and you walked away. You left him there to die, because you were only concerned with your precious _Bucky."_

She spat the name like it was a swear word. Steve just stared at her, horrified.

It was true. Tony couldn't even stand up, and he had just walked away, never even looking back...

"I was there for all of it," the girl seethed, "and I couldn't do anything while you almost killed my _father."_

_Father!?_

The word sent a shiver down Steve's spine. No, it couldn't be...

"Yes, Rogers, I am Tony Stark's daughter," she hissed when Steve shook his head in denial, "and you nearly put me through the same pain he had to withstand when he saw that video."

Steve was trembling, both in fear and in horror. _I... I didn't do that... I didn't know-_

"You ruin everything you touch, Rogers. You're like a bad disease, a parasite. Know this: whatever will happen to you now... you deserve worse."

With that, she slowly unclenched her fist from his uniform, turned on her heels and left, her back straight and her chin held high.

Steve looked down, shaken to the bone. On his chest, his uniform now had various rips in the fabric. The silver star had come off and had fallen at his feet, torn and crumpled.

**Natalia Alianovna Romanoff**

Three days later, Steve had resigned himself.

He was going to prison. There was nothing to do about it anymore. In fact, he was going to be transferred to the Raft in a few hours.

Meeting Sharon, Tony and then Tony's daughter had shaken his beliefs considerably.

Tony had a daughter. And somehow, Steve had almost killed him while she was watching. What kind of monster does that?

_No! I didn't know! And Tony was trying to kill Bucky!_

Then Sharon's words came back in his traitorous mind: _If Tony wanted you two dead back in Siberia, all he had to do was fly outside and use his heavy weaponry to turn the entore place into a smoking crater. You two would have been vaporized into your elementary particles._

Steve shook his head: no, it couldn't be true. Tony had been absolutely _vicious_ in Siberia. Yes, maybe he could have killed them both with his missiles, but the reason he hadn't done that wasn't because he didn't want them dead. It was because he wanted to use his fists. To see them hurt.

Yes, that had to be it. Tony had blown Bucky's arm clean off... He was crazed in that moment.

Steve had also tried to reason with him, to tell him it wasn't Bucky, that Hydra had controlled him... And Tony's response had been to tell him: 'move', and then go after Bucky.

No, Tony hadn't spared them his heavy weapons out of compassion. He hadn't used those weapons because he wanted to see them bleed.

As he was trying to convince himself of that, he heard footsteps approaching. Warily, he got up and walked to the glass to see who it was.

Natasha came into view a few moments later.

"Nat, Oh, thank God, are you alright? I was so worried..." he said, meaning every word.

Natasha came to a stop right in front of him. In that moment, it crossed Steve's mind that she wasn't restrained. She was walking free in the detention block of the Avengers Compound.

Tony's Compound.

_She's back with Tony..._

_She betrayed us, just like she betrayed him in Germany..._

He took a step back, about to throw the accusation, but Natasha beat him to it: "You were worried, Rogers? For someone other than James Barnes?" she said coolly, raising an eyebrow.

Steve's expression hardened: "Of course I was. We are teammates. Or at least I thought we were. Obviously I was wrong, seeing that I'm in a cell and you're not..."

Natasha merely tilted her head, looking at him with disgust.

No. Steve wasn't going to just stand there and let her judge him. She had no right.

He gave her his best disapproving glare: "I thought you wanted to do the right thing. I really shouldn't have fallen for your little act, back at Sam's house, when SHIELD fell. You betrayed us."

Natasha just narrowed her eyes, and Steve felt irritated to no end.

"I thought in Germany you had seen reason, seen that you were wrong to support the Accords. And then you just went and ruined everything again. As soon as you saw Tony's side was starting to win, you crawled right back to him, didn't you?"

Natasha remained silent, still staring at him with that judging stare.

Steve was getting furious: "You have no honor whatsoever, do you? You would never stand by your ideals, you're so afraid of sacrificing anything for your morals that you jump ship as soon as it becomes convenient. Not that you have any morals to begin with..."

Still Natasha wouldn't talk.

Steve had had enough: "Are you gonna say something or are you just gonna stand there staring at me!?" he yelled.

Natasha's expression didn't flinch in the slightest as she finally spoke: "After I let you and Barnes go in Leipzig, and Rhodes was injured trying to chase you down, we rushed to the hospital. There, as soon as Rhodes was stable, I spoke with Tony. He accused me of exactly the same thing you're accusing me of now, of being incapable of not being a double agent, of having betrayed him. The difference between you and him? He was right. I did betray him. Because I wanted us to stop fighting. Because I couldn't stand to fight my friends any longer. Clint, Sam... you. I didn't want to be at odds with all of you anymore."

Steve merely scoffed. If this was an attempt to get back into his good graces, it was just pitiful. He thought the infamous Black Widow could do better: "So what are you saying? That now you've betrayed us and gone back to Tony because you don't want to be at odds with him either?"

Natasha's eyes narrowed even more: "Right after speaking with Tony, I went into hiding. I was desperate. I thought I had lost all of my friends. I was so out of it, in fact, that Thaddeus Ross managed to get the jump on me and abduct me."

Steve frowned in confusion.

"I was interrogated, beaten, tortured for days. Ross wanted to know where Clint's family lived. In the end they used drugs and truth serum and I couldn't fight them anymore. But Tony managed to save both me and Clint's family. I have been on house arrest here at the Compound ever since."

Steve suddenly felt like an idiot. Again, he had just assumed the worst. He'd done it countless times with Tony, and now he'd done it with Natasha as well.

"I- I'm sorry Nat... I thought-"

"I let you and Barnes go. I even actively covered your escape. I betrayed Tony. He was my friend, and I stabbed him in the back. For you," Natasha interrupted him.

Steve kept silent, looking down.

"I thought I was doing the right thing," she continued, "I thought I could stop us from tearing each other apart. Instead, all I did was set Tony up for yet another betrayal. The worst betrayal of his life."

Steve flinched, but finally found his footing: "Why do you suddenly care? What gives you the right to judge me, Natasha? You knew too, and you didn't tell Tony either..."

"Yes. And everytime I look at him I desperately wish I could turn back time and tell him at the first possible opportunity. The only reason why I didn't tell him was because I cared about you both, and I didn't want to put either of you in a difficult situation. You told me you wanted to be the one telling him, but you needed time. I obliged you and kept my mouth shut. I gave you all the time you needed. But you never intended to tell Tony the truth, did you? You just hoped it would never come up, because you can't stand to even mildly disappoint dear old Bucky..."

Steve bristled. He was not gonna stand for it. Not from Natasha of all people: "You don't get to lecture me on truth and transparency! Your most prominent and refined ability is lying to everyone, isn't it, Black Widow? So don't come to me and tell him I shouldn't have lied to Tony! I only did it to protect Bucky!"

Natasha's fists clenched: "Exactly. You only care about Barnes," she scowled.

Steve made to retort, but Natasha went on: "And you can stop with this ridiculous notion that Barnes needed protecting from Tony. If anything, it was Tony who needed protecting from you. Some friend you are," she added with disgust.

That statement made Steve snap: "I'm sorry? Tony needs protection from me!? You know he enhanced himself to be able to beat me? Yes, I went about it in the wrong way, but Bucky did need to be kept away from Tony! He turned himself into a monster just so he could have the means to defeat Bucky! I made mistakes, I'm man enough to admit that, but I _had_ to act that way!"

Natasha scoffed, smiling sarcastically. She shook her head and closed her eyes, giving a huffing laughter, before staring at an indefinite spot on the ceiling above Steve's head in the universal 'God, give me the strenght' move.

Again, Steve bristled: "What now!?" he demanded.

Nat lowered her gaze back on Steve's face, her expression turning sour: "You really think Tony enhanced himself to fight you?"

"Of course!" Steve replied hotly, "Why else would he do that?"

Natasha looked him dead in the eyes: "To survive. After Siberia."

Steve reeled back as if he had been struck: "What?" he managed to ask, his voice suddenly lowering to a whisper.

Natasha scoffed again: "What did you expect, Steve? You left him there with five broken ribs, a punctured lung and massive internal bleeding. He sat there in a broken suit, freezing, for almost twenty-three hours. When he was finally brought back Helen Cho figured he had about two weeks, if he was lucky. It was just too late, there was nothing else that could be done. They couldn't save him with normal medical procedures, you had injured him too badly."

Steve was breathing heavily, his eyes wide, slightly shaking his head jerkily in denial.

Natasha kept her eyes on his, forcing the truth to sink in: "Tony once told me: we create our own demons. You created yours, Steve. You created yours the moment you decided to never tell Tony about his parents. The moment you chose Bucky over him."

Steve shook his head again, but then that confrontation on the SHIELD helicarrier all those years ago came abruptly back to his mind.

_"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that away, and what are you?"_

_"You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."_

No. Tony had never wanted to be like him. He used a suit of armor, but underneath he was human. He wanted to _stay_ human.

Another choice Steve had taken from him.

He was desperate. First Tony and Sharon, then Tony's daughter (he still hadn't fully wrapped his head around _that),_ and now Natasha.

It wasn't fair. Why was he being punished like this? He was going to prison now, and yes, it was what he deserved. Why was everyone kicking him when he was down? Wasn't all he was going through now, and what he was going to endure in the future, punishment enough?

"Why are you here, Nat?" he asked in a subdued voice.

She shrugged: "I wanted to ask you if you still think it was worth it. After all, Barnes is alive and unhurt, the Avengers are still going strong, even stronger than before... You could have been part of it all, you know? If you hadn't unilaterally decided you were right and the rest of the world was wrong."

_Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say 'No. You move'._

Right. Except look where it had lead.

Natasha shrugged: "But I guess I already know the answer. It was worth it for you, but not so you could protect Barnes. Or Tony. Or the world. No, it was worth it to protect your need to be the judge, jury and executioner. To be the one that decides everything about everyone."

Steve looked down. His hands were trembling.

"I even made a nasty comment about Tony's ego, right after Leipzig," Natasha seethed, both accusingly and self-deprecatingly, "Incredible how I didn't see that _your_ ego puts his to shame."

She didn't say anything else. Steve watched her go, her shoulders hunched and her head hung low in disappointment. Disappointment in herself, for being blinded by his legend.

That same legend that had blinded him.

**Virginia 'Pepper' Potts.**

"Rogers! You have a visitor!" the guard shouted, harsh and unfriendly.

Steve barely lifted his head when the door of his cell opened. He couldn't find it in himself to care.

He was supposed to be a hero. _Good becomes great,_ Erskine had said.

Instead, there he was, in the prison where the most terrible and dangerous criminals in the entire world were held. And he was going to stay there for the next _fifty years._

As he followed the guard down the corridor, he passed Clint's cell. The man was cursing and yelling like a madman, trashing in the straitjacket that they had put on him, more for his own safety than anything else.

Being thrown back here in the Raft had been the final straw for Clint. Years of stress and repressed rage that had always bubbled under the surface had finally exploded, making his most violent tendencies come out.

After injuring two guards, preemptive measures had been taken. Steve once again cursed himself silently. Clint was there because of him. He found himself once again being glad that the rest of his team hadn't been thrown in the Raft as well.

Sam, Scott and Hank had been deemed less dangerous than Clint, on the grounds of not being world-renowned assassins with skills honed for years by SHIELD. They had been locked up in a normal, supermax prison in the continental United States. They refused to tell him exactly where.

Wanda was detained somewhere else. Apparently there was a community of magic wielders somewhere in Nepal (or was it India?) that was capable of containing her should she try to escape or rebel.

He didn't know where Bucky was. All they had told him was that he was getting the help he needed, 'now that you can no longer drag him around the world being a terrorist', were their exact words.

At least they weren't in the Raft.

The Raft had broken Clint. Steve wondered how long it would be before it broke him too.

Maybe it was already happening: Steve was showing several signs of depression. He had stopped shaving, his sleep was haunted by terrible nightmares every night, he only ate half his meals and they all tasted like cardboard. Even now, following the guard to meet with a completely unexpected visitor, he couldn't find it within himself to care who it was.

A visit, any visit, should be a treasured occasion for an inmate. A chance to see a new face, to get news from the outside world, to interact with it somehow. But Steve knew the outside world didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore.

It felt like coming out of the ice all over again. The world had moved on, and was still moving on, without him.

They were nearly at their destination, and a small part of Steve felt curious about who it was that wanted to meet him. He felt a sliver of hope that it would be Tony. That he could have the opportunity to try and explain himself.

But when he entered the room, divided in half by a thick floor-to-ceiling ballistic glass, he found one of the last people he wanted to see.

Pepper looked stunning as usual, in an ivory sheath dress and beige high heels that made Steve's feet hurt just by looking at them. But she walked on them as if she was walking on clouds.

She came to stand in front of him, her arms crossed and her chin raised. Steve immediately felt cowed, and hated himself for it.

He shouldn't be afraid of a woman with no fighting skills, but somehow, he was. He had learned during his trial how powerful Pepper Potts could be.

She had been the one who had destroyed his reputation. Even without bringing up what had happened in Siberia, she had brought up all kinds of evidence against him: surveillance footage of a confrontation in the Avengers Tower during Ultron when Steve had attacked Tony (Steve didn't even remember that until it was brought up), of the discussion about the Accords where Steve had dismissed the will of one hundred and seventeen nations by stating that "the best hands were their own," even of the Battle of the Triskelion, when he had ordered Maria Hill to set the Insight Helicarriers to destroy each other instead of making them land safely in their hangars.

He didn't know how she had gotten a hold ot that one. He suspected Tony or their daughter had helped her (she had to be _their_ daughter. The resemblance between Pepper and the girl was uncanny). He had tried to argue that those helicarriers couldn't fall in the wrong hands after the battle was over, that they had to be destroyed, but no one had listened.

And it hadn't been just video evidence either: she had shown the jury how he had unilaterally decided to welcome Wanda in the Avengers, without so much as a psychological evaluation. She had accused him of only taking Wanda in to pave the way for Bucky: if the world could accept a willing but repentant ex-Hydra terrorist as an Avenger, it would have been child's play to make them accept an unwilling, brainwashed one.

She had also accused Steve of using Tony in every way he could, bleeding him dry of every resource he could get his hands on, using manipulation and gaslighting to coerce Tony to satisfy his every request. Steve was shocked by her viciousness, and by how she could think so badly of him.

At the beginning of the trial, Steve's lawyer had told him that they could use his public image to sensibly reduce his sentence. Play on Captain America's legend, using the war hero card as much as they could. But after Pepper's testimony, Captain America was covered in mud. Forever.

And she had managed to accomplish all of this without even bringing up the fight in Siberia.

Steve was finished. When he heard the judge pronounce the words: "Steven Grant Rogers, you are hereby sentenced to serve fifty years at the Raft maximum security prison system, without the possibility of early parole," he had felt his stomach drop, his heart jump up in his throat and his knees go weak. He had collapsed in his chair and looked helplessly around the room.

Tony hadn't been present that day, but Pepper was right there. When the sentence was pronounced, her face hadn't even twitched. She had stood, turned on her heels and left the room, never looking back. Her work there was done.

But now, there she was. There in the Raft, only five and a half weeks later, looking at him as if he was the most vile and disgusting creature that ever existed.

It took a while for Steve to find his footing. He straightened his back and raised his chin, looking for a composure that he didn't feel in himself. But he had to appear dignified in his defeat. He would not give her the satisfaction of seeing him broken.

"Miss Potts," he greeted neutrally.

"Mr. Rogers," she shot back, the left corner of her mouth twitching slightly upward in satisfaction.

That hurt. Not only had Steve been sentenced to half a century in jail, he had also been stripped of his honorary (Honorary. He didn't even know that) rank of Captain and dishonorably discharged from the Army.

Pepper had taken even that from him.

"Come to admire your handiwork?" he asked, forgoing any fake pleasantry.

Steve had never had a high opinion of Pepper. Yes, her heart was in the right place, but in his eyes she was mostly... irrelevant. Unimportant. She was just some sort of secretary, after all. It almost made sense that Tony would agree with the Accords, with tying the Avengers to the will of politicians and paper-pushers: he was in love with one.

Only during his trial he understood what his woman was actually capable of.

"I suppose you could say that," Pepper agreed, taking another step towards the glass, "I wanted to look you in the eyes one last time. See you finally getting what you deserve. Because you deserve this, you know that, right?"

Steve's expression hardened: "It's about Tony, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yes, Rogers," Pepper retorted, "but not entirely. See, there's something that wasn't discussed during your trial. I respect Tony far too much to break his boundaries disclosing something as personal as what happened in Siberia in a court of law, but I really want to see you try and justify that to me." she said, almost growling.

Steve looked down: "I know I handled things badly. I made mistakes, I see that now. But this? This... vendetta of yours? Don't you think you're taking it too far? You and Tony weren't even together when things soured..."

Pepper's eyes narrowed dangerously: "And you think I have to be with Tony to care about him, Rogers? Do you have to be romantically involved with Barnes to care about him?"

Steve's cheeks flushed in embarrassment: "That's different-"

"Tony is my lover. The man of my life. But before that, he is my friend," Pepper interrupted, "and you hurt him. You nearly killed him. No, Rogers, I'm not taking it too far. Neither are Friday, Rhodey, Happy, Vision or the New Avengers. Leaving a man to die in Siberia, _that_ is taking it too far. This? This is justice. This is me, this is _us,_ standing up for our friend."

Steve flinched. He remembered Rhodey and Vision's testimonies at his trial: while not as damaging to his reputation as Pepper's, they had been just as vicious.

He took a deep breath: "Then you can understand why I did what I did. I was protecting my friend. What happened in Siberia... it wasn't Bucky's fault. None of it, and you know that."

Pepper tilted her head to the side: "Do I know that, Rogers? More importantly, do _you_ know that?"

Steve's brow furrowed: "I beg your pardon?"

"Tony's parents. Bucharest. Siberia. Are you really sure none of it is Barnes' fault?" Pepper wanted to know.

Steve straightened his back. He didn't know where she was going with this, but of that, he was sure: "Of course I am," he said, fully convinced.

Pepper uncrossed her arms, and somehow that move looked much more threatening than it should have: "Then why did you never tell Tony the truth?" she asked.

Steve's posture hunched slightly before he could stop himself. He looked down: "I was scared of Tony's reaction. Iron Man is incredibly powerful, and... if Tony took it badly and went after Bucky-"

He was interrupted by the sound of Pepper scoffing: "Unbelievable," she muttered to herself.

"What?" Steve asked.

"You still think you have the moral high ground, don't you, Rogers? You still think Tony is some immature child with too much power at his disposal. Do you think nobody ever noticed how you always tried to undermine him? How you constantly belittled him, guilt-tripped him, put him down at every turn to try and control him?"

Steve tried to deny: "I didn't-"

"Tony is intelligent, Rogers. Much more intelligent than you. If you can rationally understand that Barnes was not to blame for the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark, then rest assured that so can Tony."

"Tony is also impulsive," Steve argued, "in Siberia, he went completely off the rails."

"If it had been Maximoff killing Barnes in that video instead of Barnes killing Tony's parents, and she had been standing right there next to you as you watched it happen, would you not have attacked her?" Pepper sneered.

Steve just lowered his head.

Pepper went on: "None of this would have happened if only you had told Tony as soon as you found out. If you'd been... not even the friend you claimed you were, but just a decent human being," she said, shaking her head.

Steve curled on himself even more as Pepper continued: "You think yourself so much better that Tony, don't you?" She leaned forward, eyes narrowed and a sarcastic smirk on her face: "You should worship the ground he walks on. Tony is worth a thousand of you."

"I wanted to help Bucky," he whispered in a broken voice, more out of force of habit than to reply to Pepper.

"Oh, yes," she sneered again, "and you did such a beautiful job. If Tony really wanted revenge on Barnes, he would send you a fruit basket. You basically did all the dirty work for him."

Those words alarmed Steve. He needed to know: "What do you mean? What happened to Bucky?"

"What happened? Nothing much. And that's the point," Pepper replied, "the standard therapy isn't working in removing his conditioning. It's looking more and more like a lost cause. Tony is developing a technology that could have helped, but you did an amazing job in preventing it from ever happening."

Steve stared at her with wide eyes, unable to talk.

"Oh well," Pepper shrugged, turning to leave, "Not that it really matters, really. You won't be able to meet him for the next fifty years anyway. I guess hindsight is always twenty-twenty. Have a nice life, Cap-Not America."

She was leaving, but Steve had to try: "Miss Potts, please! Bucky doesn't deserve this to be held against him!"

"Couldn't agree with you more, Rogers," she replied, turning to look at him over his shoulder, "In fact, I'm holding this against _you."_

Steve was desperate. No, he couldn't let her leave without trying. If he had really wronged Bucky so much, he had to try and make it right in any way: "Pepper, please! Please! You have to do something! Bucky deserves a chance to heal!"

Pepper huffed, like an annoyed teacher trying to explain something to a really stupid child: "I don't _have_ to do anything, Rogers. And even if I wanted to, I couldn't. You made sure of that. After all the devastation your merry band caused, the entire world now sees Barnes as one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world."

"Tony can do something! I know he can!" Steve protested.

"Are you deaf, Rogers? I just explained to you that he can't," she said. Steve made to say something else, but Pepper went on: "And besides, what do you expect me to do? Goad Tony into helping your friend? Maybe guilt-trip him into it?" she said, fully turning to face him.

Steve flinched back, looking down, but Pepper wasn't done: "Because that was your plan once you had found him, wasn't it? After all your research and your trips all over the world using Tony's resources to find your frozen hobo friend, you would have gone to Tony to educate him on how much better a person Barnes was than him, how much more than him Barnes deserved to be happy. And then you would have _ordered_ him to wave his magic wand and make all of Barnes' problems magically disappear. Of course, at that point you would have brought him into the Avengers and forced Tony to house him, feed him, clothe him, provide him with equipment and cater to his every need. And never, in all this, you would have told Tony about his parents and offered him closure, not even as a thank you for helping your friend. That's what you were gonna do, wasn't it, Rogers?"

Steve reeled back, his face going pale. He was disgusted.

Disgusted with himself.

Because it sounded awful in the way Pepper had phrased it... but that was exactly what he would have done.

Tears ran down Steve's face. A sob made it's way out of his throat. And then another one.

Pepper wasn't moved in the slightest by the pitiful display. She was disgusted by it: "I hope one day you realize what a foul, disgusting creature you are. You don't even deserve to be considered a human being. Goodbye, Rogers. May you rot here in this prison where you belong."

"It wasn't Bucky's fault," Steve whimpered between sobs, like a mantra.

"Maybe not," Pepper agreed, her voice hard as steel, banging on the door on her side of the room to be let out, "but after what you did for his sake, to Tony and to the world at large, nobody will lose a second of sleep over it."

The reinforced door opened and Pepper stepped out, her back turned to him. As she left, Steve looked down, and before the door closed behind her, concealing her to his sight, he caught a glimpse of the soles of her shoes: they were bright red.

Red like Tony's armor.

Red like Wanda's powers.

Red like the blood that covered Howard and Maria Stark's faces when the Winter Soldier had killed them.

Like the blood that had been spilled in Siberia. In Bucharest. In Lagos. In Washington.

The blood that stained his hands.

Red.

Like Johann Schmidt's face.

Steve slumped down on the floor and wept.

_Good becomes great._

_Bad becomes worse._

**Author's Note:**

> The power of Louboutins XD.
> 
> Friday ripping the silver star off Steve's uniform is a nod to the Infinity War trailer, where Steve's uniform is worn and dirty and is actually missing the star.
> 
> (Also a hint of what the next multi-chaptered story in this series is gonna be about).


End file.
